S.o.e.

[SiPo]

Picked up some nice items to the Special Operations Executive recently. Getting extremely difficult to locate nice..... and genuine pieces.

[Totenhead]

Superb !

[pzrwest]

Nice collection. Here in Canada "brass knuckles", spring or gravity activated knives are prohibited items. Which means one can't possess any of these items and can get you in a lot of trouble if you are caught with any of them reguardless if you are a collector or not

[SiPo]

In the UK, the knuckles, disguised pen knife and the locking blade saboteur knife are all classed as offensive weapons. However, these are legal to own as part of a collection in your own home but if carried in a public place.......... big, big trouble!!

[Totenhead]

I always remember going on a school Trip to Germany when I was 13 to Bonn, Cologne and we stayed near Koblenz.

I bought a flick knife from a shop there and on the coach coming back to Britain my lovely gf at the time put it in her purse in case the coach was stopped at customs

When we got back in school, a mate of mine mithered me to sell it him, so I did making a small profit, a week later he got busted by the local Bobby and nearly got sent to borstal for having it !! haha always makes me chuckle to this day

[peter monahan]

A colleague of mine took a school group to Washington DC, from a small town in Canada. All 17-18 year olds, which presents its own challenges! Some considerable time later she discovered one of them had slipped away across the river into Virginia and bought a 'Saturday night special' - a cheap hand gun - which he's brought home. Serious crime and, for her, a career stopper if he'd been caught.

Happily for me, she told me that after she and I had returned from a second DC school trip.
And people wonder why teachers have grey hair and drink a lot!

[pzrwest]

Butterfly knives are also illegal here in Canada

[lyness]

Picked up some nice items to the Special Operations Executive recently. Getting extremely difficult to locate nice..... and genuine pieces.

Afraid to say at least 2 of the pieces are not right - the finger ring tyre slasher and the dagger just below the tyre slasher lock knife. This last one has been extensively copies and the other piece is a fantasy item.

[SiPo]

Afraid to say at least 2 of the pieces are not right - the finger ring tyre slasher and the dagger just below the tyre slasher lock knife. This last one has been extensively copies and the other piece is a fantasy item.

Whilst I agree that copies do exist this fact alone does not condemn every example of this type of dagger. More knowledgeable people than myself in this field of collecting are very happy with this piece and that makes me extremely comfortable.

Unfortunately, not everyone will be comfortable with pieces from other collections and this is perfectly fine and acceptable. It is also acceptable for owners not to share supporting information which categorically proves items from their collections to be genuine pieces.

I must also respectfully disagree that the tyre slashers are fantasy items. There are plenty of genuine examples of these pieces around......as well as fakes. Should my example turn out to be not of the period it still sits comfortable with me as it was a gift from an amazing and unique gentleman I am proud to call a friend.

Whilst I am happy to receive ALL comments, I would much prefer negative ones be backed by facts and hard evidence.

[lyness]

The grip of the dagger is completely the wrong shape for an original and is more akin to post war pieces made bythe likes of HGLong. Just for clarificaton the tyre slasher I am talking about is the ring one at the bottom right of the picture. These started to come out of the US/Canada many years ago primarily via one or two source and are not authentic SOE items. As a aside I would love to see one being used to slash a tyre it being the most impractical design for doing so - how on earth would you get any purchase and stop it rotating on the finger?

[peter monahan]

Post # 1 by g. hanson:

"Picked up some nice items to the Special Operations Executive recently. Getting extremely difficult to locate nice..... and genuine pieces." [emphasis added]

Just to be clear, I have no dog in this fight: don't collect SOE, don't know anything much about it. But I read this forum to learn.

Post # 3 by g hanson:
"Unfortunately, not everyone will be comfortable with pieces from other collections and this is perfectly fine and acceptable. It is also acceptable for owners not to share supporting information which categorically proves items from their collections to be genuine pieces... Whilst I am happy to receive ALL comments, I would much prefer negative ones be backed by facts and hard evidence." [again, emphasis added]

Am I correct in understanding that you want supporting evidence that some of these pieces are not correct but won't share the evidence that proves 'categorically' that they are correct? Seems a rather odd double standard IMHO. Or am I missing something?

Peter

[Military Antiques Toronto]

Hi everyone

Well to get everybody excited the Canadian connection is a guy named Peter mason who lives in Alberta. He claims to be ex sas and has written a few books to support his claims. He employes very good manufacturers to make his fakes and last time I noticed some of them for sale on ebay uk. He has or was selling them via dr bill windrum in bc. I think he has gotten wise to the copies and is no longer selling them. I am not commenting on if these particular ones are his or not just shedding some light on the subject
Dave

[seebee1]

There is a large display and collection of Peter Mason, and his wife Pru, weapons and equipment at the Combined Military Services Museum in the UK. There are items displayed that are not original in this collection and this spoils what is a really good overall Museum. Some may have read, and questioned Pater Mason's book "Official Assassin".

[peter monahan]

I wasn't looking for names per se, but the two posts above clarify things quite a bit: this is a discreet discussion about a possible faker/fakes, not simply a gentlemen's disagreement over what might be 'right' or not.

Still puzzled by Mr. Hanson's attitude, however. Must be the teacher in me! "Show me your sources, please."

Peter

[SiPo]

Am I correct in understanding that you want supporting evidence that some of these pieces are not correct but won't share the evidence that proves 'categorically' that they are correct? Seems a rather odd double standard IMHO. Or am I missing something?

Peter

Peter,

Basically, yes, and yes again, you are missing something.

Take your little tale about the schooltrip and the weapon. I believe you but what if someone doesn't believe you, accuses you of making it all up and asks for more info? What if they ask you to name the teacher and student so they can verify your story? Do you have to tell them and would you tell them? Of course not.

As I said, I am VERY comfortable with the items posted and I do not have to share ANY other information. However, if someone does call an item into question I do expect something to back that up. You may call it double standards, I call it "Legal burden of proof," look it up.

Still puzzled by Mr. Hanson's attitude, however.

Peter, I do not have attitude. Never have, never will. Not quite sure why this thread has gone down this route and I certainly didn't expect to have to defend myself but here we are none the less. In my line of work, I get to meet some very interesting people and I get to see and play with some interesting clandestine "toys." It would have been nice to show more of these "toys" as most people would probably never get to see anything like them and would be surprised that they even existed. However, it is obvious that showing them would be too much hassle as I would be forever bombarded with requests to justify their originality or asked to name the source and that is just not going to happen....period.

Must be the teacher in me! "Show me your sources, please."

No, and that must be the ex detective in me!